Local Development Benefits from Staging Global Events
The competition to stage major global events – such as OIympic Games, EXPOs, cultural festivals, and political summits – is more intense than ever before. Despite advances in virtual communication, large-scale gatherings of this kind have again become extraordinarily popular. In part, this can be explained by the worldwide media attention and sponsorship that such events now generate. But it is also substantially accounted for by the longer-term local benefits that can be achieved for the host location, including: improved infrastructure, increased revenues from tourism and trade, employment creation and heightened civic pride. However, such positive effects do not occur by accident, or without effective local action. Effective legacy planning and management is essential to ensure that the financial risk of investing in the event pays off, and that local development is boosted in a meaningful way.
Put simply, when international events are hosted well, they become a catalyst for local development and global reach. This book identifies how international events work as a trigger for local development and what hosting cities and nations can do to ensure that positive local development is realised. It reviews experience from more than 30 cities and nations and it looks forward to future events yet to be hosted.
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Making a Habit of It: Hosting More than One Event?
Whilst hosting one event is expensive, holding two is not necessarily doubly costly, and can yield much higher benefits. For instance, if new venues need to be built and can be used for both events, the initial costs can be shared. The theory behind such a plan is elegant and sensible, but it is technically very difficult to implement such a strategy. In this chapter, the cost-cutting approach will be examined and the possibilities and difficulties will be explored. If this strategy cannot be put into practice, there are many other ways in which two or more events in close succession can be advantageous. These benefits can be demonstrated with reference to the experience of cities that have been ambitious enough to host multiple events.
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